>> this is "the chris matthews show." >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> i can hear you. >> a time for change has come! chris: obama at the threshold. account president combine grand prospects for glory with today's hard realities? can he offer a vision of a greater future and a practical way to confront debt in spending? can he address goals of historic consequence like immigration, while dealing with the grim money matters that routinely divide the country? the roosevelt way. could barack obama, even if he confronts a hostile opposition, still pursue a historic legacy, like f.d.r. in world war ii?

could he hold a fighting action on one front to push for spending cuts while battling for gun safety and immigration reform on a second front? finally, picture-perfect. there are beautiful american families, a and no one treasures them more than the man in the white house. in the same week the president spoke parmelee about the time he spends with his daughters, reaction to that hateful n.r.a. ad may have shown how warmly the country has adopted them. chris: i'm chris matthews welcome to the show. with us joe klein from "time" magazine, the bbc's katty kay, nia-malika henderson henderson and david leonhardt. the president addresses the country and he will try to project his will that would block his legacy. opposition to barack obama in some quarters is searing. hear how sean hannity greeted the obama victory in november -- >> america wanted barack obama

for four more years, and now we have him. by the way, good luck with that. chris: that was a bit sarcastic. today as the president take the oath, the new nbc wall street poll traces a geographic divide. 60% of americans who live in cities say they like the president personally, and like his policies. in the suburbs 43% like him and his policies. but in rural areas it's just 27%. and that's what you see playing out in congress. also inside the poll 6-10 strong republicans dislike the president personally as well as his policies. joe, there's a deep groove of resistance out there, and i guess the question is, how does the first term look, when you look back on it, compared to how it's looking? >> he's going to drive them completely crazy, those 60% of hrps in this term. and the reason for it is that there's an enormous story that we're missing, and that is we have had two important votes in

the last three weeks. one was on sandy, the other was on raising taxes. in both cases obama had a bipartisan majority in the house. that is a governing majority. he's going to have it on immigration and also on the debt ceiling. not sure he's going to have it on guns, but he's going to drive the really hard-line republicans crazy because he's going to be able to break off 40 or 50 of them for all these other things. chris: that seems to be true as much as the opposition is hotter and perhaps hardening out there on the right. it does seem that the center right and the center are in play and obama is making his move toward them successfully. >> their governing philosophy coming in is that the fever would break among the tea party folks, among the hard right, and also that just folks in the house would sort of move to the boehner philosophy, which is a governing philosophy. the sort of -- chris: in other words, you don't need a majority of the republicans to rule.

>> you break the rule, which is what he's done on these big-ticket items. they have been meeting over these last couple of days to figure out wait forward. i think the president was smart to step into these debates early and often and frame them in ways that americans can understand. and you have house republicans trying to play catch-up. chris: let me go back on this question four years ago. remember when lincoln came into office they were already plotting against him. he had to come in through baltimore and hide at the willard. this president had to come in against mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, saying my number-one goal in life is to get rid of this president. >> and he failed. so i think it's different in some ways and not different in others. i think we are still going to see a very large portion of the republican caucus that believes deeply in what they believe in. that have districts at home that will support them very strongly against the president. but the question is on various issues, can the president put together 30, 40, 50 republicans and pass some of these things? as joe was saying, on immigration, he can do that.

chris: for four years the republicans have painted him as a lefty, off in the poll. it seems to me right now, even thote's all temporal, that he's been able to identify the n.r.a. as the far right and to separate them. nerpped, the right is more out of step than he is -- in other words, the right is more out of step than he is. >> if you look at public opinion broadly, it seems there's been a shift in the country. thrls been a 10% shift to the right amongst the republican party. so you have seen, it's true, a republican party that has shifted to the right. barack obama has managed through issues like gun control and the right through organizations like the n.r.a. to paint them as out of step with the mainstream of america more successfully than the right has managed to depict the president as being out of step with the mainstream of america. chris: i want to ask you about the cover of a magazine, has the country moved more towards the gun control position or not because of the horror at

newtown? >> i think they've moved some to that position. the n.r.a. still has a stranglehold, but the president can use the extremism of the n.r.a., who are acting like a bunch of crazies that's days to help sell the rest of his agenda. chris: this is too far out, and let's take a look at this right now. >> are the president's kid more important than yours? than why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? chris: when you bring the kids of the president in, who are protected against kidnapping, against being used because of their father's position, it just seems to be totally off the wall here. >> it is off the wall, i think, to the general public, but it is very much in keeping with the n.r.a.'s strategy, which is to create controversy and gin up a motion for people who think the government wants to take their guns.

there's a four-minute web ad that also takes the same issue. and there's a ticker on this ad that shows the membership of the n.r.a. going up as the n.r.a. -- chris: explain that dynamic. how is it that they get more people against them, they get more membership? >> if someone thinks they're under attack, what happens? gun sales go up and they want to donate to the n.r.a. and join the n.r.a.. >> that's americanism. in 2004, it's like if the world is against me i must be doing something right. it's interesting, anecdotally i spoke to a couple of in. r.a. people this weekend in virginia and they did say for them newtown was a turning point in terms of background checks, for example. chris: this is the abc "washington post" poll. support ban on high-capacity clips, those magazines. 65% support this. support assault weapons ban. just 58%. but support background checks at gun shows, 88%. will that particular approach to particular questions drive this

debate in congress, or the more profound question, are you with the n.r.a. or against us? >> i think it's with us or against us. and by the way, the n.r.a. isn't unique in this way. all of these special interest groups raise money through slippery slope arguments. you know, the pro-choice people, you know, do the exact same thing with abortion, you know. and that is the way you get your people really ginned up, as you said, and that's where you raise money. >> the poll numbers are telling. the two most likely things from a legislative perspective are the magazine clips and background checks. i think anything else is going to be a really heavy -- and get the highest support. remember, even if the n.r.a. offends some people -- first of all, i think a lost americans were not offend by that ad. they started as opponents of obama's. even if the n.r.a. offend some people, that doesn't mean those people flip to being gun-control advocates. there are many people in this country who have nothing to do with the n.r.a. but believe strongly in their right to own a lot of guns. chris: let's go to another

potential issue. the republicans determination to shut down government, to let the debt ceiling hang out, to risk a loss of credit, are they still on that same front? >> i think they are seeing the handwriting on the wall. when you look at these bipartisan votes, you have paul ryan voting for higher taxes. you have both ryan and rubio voting for immigration reform now. and i think you're going to see enough votes in the center to raise the debt ceiling without any kind of -- chris: are they jumping shark on this? >> i think so. i think the public is certainly sick of it. and i also think the business community doesn't want to hear anything about shutting down the government. chris: you're the expert. i real me mean this. people advise me on making financial decisions. they think the economy looks pretty good. don't mess it up. >> it does look pretty good, as best we can tell. the one thing to remember is it's not just the debt ceiling.

it's these automatic cuts that are scheduled to take place march 189 the debt ceiling isn't their only opportunity to try to get the president to agree to cuts. there are looming deadlines. so i think the republicans will get obama to agree to some cuts, even if we don't have a really economically damaging showdown. chris: how are we going to deal to entitlements? i don't think liberals want to do much. who is going to do it? >> we don't have to do it immediately, and that's an important point. conservatives don't either. the conservative base right now is an older base. it's people in their 50's and 60's, people who say i'm really worried about the deficit. don't touch my medicare or social security. chris: that it? indicated stuff. >> the entitlement stuff is a really big problem. there are a lot of liberals who go too far in denying it's a problem, but it's not an immediate problem. interest rates remain low. we have a little bit of time. chris: now for some fun. we're all looking forward to witnessing the president's inauguration on monday, we thought we'd look back through history at some inauguration

firsts. this inauguration will mark the 57th time a president has been sworn into office and like any national tradition, the ceremony has evolved. george washington's inauguration was not only a first for our country, but also the fst and only to be rescheduled because congress delayed the election. andrew jackson was first sworn in on the east side of the capitol building and ronald reagan the first on the west. the shortest inauguration dress was george washington's second. six presidents have taken the oath outside washington. george washington first in new york, and then in philadelphia. john adams in philadelphia. chester arthur in new york. teddy roosevelt in buffalo. calvin coolidge in plymouth, vermont, and l.b.j. in dallas. james polk's inauguration was the first to be covered using the telegraph and war enharding's parade was the first to use cars.

buchanan's inauguration was the first one photographed and william mckin le's was the first filmed. hoover's was the first in a movie newsreel. the first to be televised was harry truman and the first streams in the internets was bill clinton's second. lincoln's parade was the first to include african-americans acknowledged wilson's was the first to include women. bad weather moved some indoors. grants touched it out in 16 degrees and jack kennedy in 20 degrees without an overcoat. f.d.r.'s inauguration was the first held in january after a constitutional amendment moved the date up from march. finally more people witnessed brom's first than any other event ever held in washington. >> wow, i love that stuff. chris: thanks to our producer for that great, great great product there. anyway, you had something to add. >> my colleague, aleash yarks pointed out that obama will be the first president since f.d.r. to take the oath of office four times. he flubbed the first one and had

to redo it. this time because it falls on a sunday he'll do it privately on sunday and then redo it on monday. chris: when we come back, only one other guy. in the first term the obama family was close to perfect. no mistakes.

>> they don't want to sneand much time with me anyway. chris: that was the president. spending so many evens with his kids rather than spending quality time with members of congress. well, the country seems to have adopted this young first family and the appears is that despite the pressures, the family's come through it well. take a look at how worried mrs. obama seemed to be about the toll on their family back in 2007 compared to how they

reacted to barbara walters just last month. >> obama had to persuade his wife to let him run. political campaigns make her feel like a single mother. >> does it put strains on the marriage from time to time? >> oh, no. [laughter] >> absolutely it has. >> so why were you hugging her so hard? >> because i love my wife. like every marriage, you have your ups and you have your downs. but if you work through the tough times, the respect and love that you feel deepens. chris: we're kind of amazed at the candor there, maybe it's self-deprecation. ups and downs? we think of them as the most calm, stable people in the world. what do you think of their averageness? >> isn't that partly why peop have responded so well to them? in a way they're revolutionary. the first black family in the white house. but in another way they're just like other families. and the way he talks there about the ups and downs and the way she teases him about, yeah, of

course it puts strains on the marriage and the way she said that, most people can relate to that, even when he says my kids are growing older and they don't want to spend so much time with me. as a mother of four kids, every mother listening to that or every parent listening to that is thinking, gosh, that's what happens. your kids don't want to spend time with you anymore. >> three presidents in a row have only had daughters. but the father always does get skipped out. >> michelle obama is a hoot. i was with them in oslo when he won the nobel peace prize and he had to make a comment. and he's writing and writing and writing and michelle says to him what, are you doing, selling your memoirs? >> she brings him down a peg. championship that's extraordinary. that never happens. i never heard of that, actually a wife putting her hub in her place? i never heard that. >> he would joke about that on the campaign trail. he thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, but she reminded him that he wasn't. >> think about the presidents before him. to one degree or another they

had spent their entire adult lives in the public eye. what's strike building the president obamas is that in 2003 you could have sat next to them on a plane and had no idea who they were. so the journey from normalcy to being the most famous people in the world is so striking. chris: despite averageness of this family. >> i think they sort of are in the position where they sort of view their lives with an element of gee whiz, pinch me now sense as well. they seem to have an objective view that a couple of years ago are just average folks. they don't think they're swept up in their own thing. chris: you've been called tall, gorgeous, ivy league americans. >> you know, they've done an amazing job raising those two girls with security services around them, transporting them to this kind of unreal world in the white house, and the girls seem to have kept their heads.

>> they're going to make their beds. they're going to set their alarm clocks. they're not these special kids in the white house. they are special because all kids are special, but -- chris: i grew up -- i'm older than you definitely. >> maybe. chris: definitely. i grew up in a country that always had white presidents and it would never be changing. and then to have a beautiful african-american woman first lady and to be accepted without -- she hasn't had the bricks thrown at her. there was that spain trip years ago, but nothing really. >> i think they were very deliberate about this. early on michelle obama posed for the cover of "vogue." she was on the cover of "people" magazine. on the cover of "oprah. " so they presented their story and entered people's homes in a way that people see them as the first family. chris: but not average, a successful coverage and a bit of a jackie figure, 3/4 sleeves. i like the style. when we come back, scoops and predictions for the notebooks.

ell me something i don't

>> tell me something i don't know is brought to you by charles schwab. let's talk about giving your portfolio a better chance to grow. talk to chuck. chris: welcome back. joe, tell me something i don't know. >> back to bipartisanship. i saw this remarkably welcome and pathetic spectacle in new york under the auspices of the group no labels. 24 members every congress, members of the house, equally divided between democrats and republicans vowed to talk to each other. chris: i saw that. >> they're all frustrated. they think there may be areas of agreement. >> i was re-reading president obama's first inaugural. he mentions three times there the idea of climate change. it's not going to come up during this time because america is moving towards energy independence, some of the idea that we need to press ahead with this. but actually wright now there's

capital investments in all of the refineries. if we don't you know put in sensible environmental policies while we're doing this massive energy extraction, we're not -- chris: tack tracking in or out is it going to last? >> it's going to last. >> the tea senator from texas look for him to make noise around the haguel nominations. he's on the senate armed services committee. he's been to scrawl twice in the last month -- israel twice in the last months. he's a star among the tea party crowd. people are talking about him. i have a possible 2016 contender. the problem being he was born in canada. >> the cliche that young people are liberal and ultra conservative is wrong. but it is true now. and that highlights the challenge. what they need to do is figure out a way to go make a kind of small government market economy-based case to young people, without turning them off. chris: could the cheap investment be a younger candidate like rubio?

>> i don't think so. chris: when we come back, the second obama nomination, is it as significant as his first? k o.

that's more than the population of new york city, chicago and los angeles combined. you can make a difference in your community and help end childhood hunger... the more you know. chris: welcome back. this week's big question, is the second obama inauguration as significant as the first? joe klein? >> it's more significant for republicans because they now know they are a minority party. but we won't have 2 million people in the mall tomorrow. >> fewer people. but if he hadn't been re-elected it would have been very significant that the first black president was only a one-termer. so the fact he's re-elected is important. >> big deal. i think it's bigger. people are still as enthusiastic as they were four years ago. they're going to be out there, not in the same masses as they were before, but this is a big deal. >> the event not as big, but it confirms the huge amount of significant legislation, whether you like it or hated that obama,

reed and pelosi passed. chris: i think the doubling down, as the new book will say. it's a big deal. thanks to all of you. that's the show. thanks for watching. see you back here next week thanks for watching. see you back here next week after the